Monday Night Football

Bre had a couple friends over to watch the Redskins play the Cowboys last night.

What an awful miserable ending to a fairly good game.

Top 5 things I learned at my company golf tournament

My company had their annual golf tournament last weekend out at Thanksgiving Point. I'm not a golfer so I didn't actually golf - but they did let me go sit at hole #7. If you got a hole in one on this hole - you got $500 and they needed someone to witness it. So I sat there with coolers of drinks and tons of treats for everyone and watched everyone golf. It was the best of all worlds. I got to spend the day outside and see everyone in the tournament as they came by - but I didn't have to golf. So here are the top 5 things I learned as I sat there.

1. The mosquitoes at the golf course are vicious an unrelenting. And it hurts when thy bite you. I had so many in the first couple hours I thought I might need a blood transfusion.


2. Never kayak on a river that runs through a golf course. Especially if hole #7 has to go right over the river - you are likely to be hit by a golf ball.


3. Golf makes people swear. Even people who don't swear do it when they are playing golf. And it's funny.


4. If you have to buy golf pants at the course pro shop - you are likely going to look REALLY bad and be mocked all day long.


5. The girl with the drinks and treats is the MOST popular girl around.

Back to School by the numbers

Clothes bought:

Pairs of shoes - 5 (plus one pair of VANS - thanks Dad)

Pairs of pants - 19

tops - 31

gym shorts - 2

socks - enough for everyone

Supplies bought:

Pencils - 50 (they were dirt cheap - I bought plenty to last the year)

glue sticks - 4

Elmer's glue - 2

duct tape - 1 roll

masking tape - 1 roll

hand sanitizer - 4

tissues - 2

scissors - 1

gallon ziplock bags - 1 box

folders - 12

binders - 6

white board markers - 8

crayons - 4

markers - 1

colored pencils - 1

pens - 8

composition notebooks - 1

college ruled paper - 3

graph paper - 1

pairs of pants hemmed - 6

pairs of pants pinned up but not hemmed yet - 3 ***UPDATE - I hemmed those three and found 2 more:(

registrations days - 4 (oops - registered Connor at the JR High one day before he got into the Charter)

back to school meetings -3

first days of school - 2

number of times we got to bed on time the first week - 0

Number of kids who had a good first day of school - 2.5 (Connor's was just okay. It's hard to transition to lockers and changing classes) ****UPDATE: Connor's second day was great:)

Hillary - 1st grade

Connor - 7th grade

Breanna - 11th grade
I for one am glad the preparation is over and they are all back in school but I'm also sad the summer is over - I think it went by way too fast this year.

She's definately the ROCK STAR of our family

We got a new car with a sun roof. The kids have refrained from doing this (in front of Mom at least) until last weekend. So while I pumped gas - she was a rock star.

Girls Scout night with the Orem Owls

We went to an Orem Owls baseball game on Saturday. It was Girl Scout night so Hillary got to do lots of fun stuff like the flag ceremony and singing during the 7th inning stretch. We all had a fabulous time.

From left to right it's Deanna, Gracie & Hillary. Then an older troop because they said 5 year olds weren't old enough to actually carry the flag.

Hillary dancing to the music while they waited to start.

During the National Anthem.

Back at our seats. We were right on the 3rd base line.

This is Harley from the Harley Davidson dealership. This is about 2 seconds after he almost ran me over on that bike.

The girls with Holly - one of the mascots.

Our three scouts waiting to go on the field to sing.

Singing "Take me out to the Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch. I was pretty proud that Hillary knew all the words to the song and actually sang them.

Still singing.

It was a good game too - the Owls won 12-1. There were a ton of home runs and several base hits. We will definitely be going to more Owls games this summer.

Hillary's skills

Hillary got hold of my camera when we were at the park for concerts and fireworks. Here is a small sampling of what I found when she was done.

This one may have been taken by McKinnely.

This is a boy I've never seen before. Hillary is developing some fine stalking skills.

Another person I don't know.

This little girl sat behind us.

This is who she was stalking when I realized she had the camera. I have a TON of pictures of this family. They thought she was weird taking their picture and the boy was trying to hide from her.

This is the coveted Justin Bieber shirt.

There are a lot of pictures of random boys. I may be in trouble....

We're getting back to normal around here...

I started posting about Art City Days about 2 weeks ago - and then my life got interrupted and I never finished. So I'm working on finishing this week - even though it's already Thursday.

So we ended the week by going to the concert and fireworks. They were as awesome as I'd hoped they'd be. They had Due West come. If you've never heard them and you like country - give them a try. In fact you've probably heard them and just don't realize it.

One thing I've learned over the years is if I let the kids bring a friend - they are much happier. They play together and let me enjoy the evening and relax. So they brought friends. I saw one of my co-workers that night and he was asking me the next week how many kids I had. He thought maybe they were all mine. I told him three is plenty for me thank you very much.

Bre just hanging out.

Hillary and McKinnley. This is how they always pose together.

Playing Frisbee.

Connor and Sam for the one minute they sat with me. Then they were off to walk around and act like teenagers. They didn't come back until fireworks time.

The girls again.

Due West

McKinnley knows how to rock - even if it's country.

I love the way the carnival lights up at night.

My girlies.

Waiting for the fireworks.

It was a fabulously fun week. Perfect weather all week long - I couldn't have asked for more. I hope even after my kids leave home they come back for it each year.

Another Fab lunch

Bre is beginning to out do herself:)

Feel free to invite yourself over for a campfire and sandwich sometime - she'd be thrilled to fix one for you!

Bre's a rockin sister

Breanna has been a rockin big sister and really stepped up her game this summer. This is what she served for lunch the other day.

The Parade

After the balloons and breakfast - we head home to get ready for the parade. I only took a couple pictures this year. The parade was short and had surprisingly few entries. I love that each city has it's own celebration - but that makes for some serious competition for floats and such. But it was fun just the same. The kids brought some friends and we collected a lot of candy and had a great time.

We had our family pictures done a week or so ago and the poor lady who took them may never work with us again...everytime she told Connor to smile this is what he did. I'm sure she got some good ones - but man he is a pain when asked to smile!

The hot air ballons

Early on Saturday morning Hillary and I went out to see the balloons fill up and launch. No one else wanted to get up that early - even with the promise of breakfast afterwards at the fire station. We haven't been able to do this for a couple years due to the rain - but this year was perfect. We couldn't have asked for a better more beautiful day. I think the balloonists would have liked even a hint of a breeze - but for those of us on the ground it was perfect.

Most of these pictures were taken by Hillary. She has quite the eye for photography sometimes. Later this week I'll show you some more of her work.

I love that in some of them you can see the snow covered mountains in the background. I saw on the news that one of the ski resorts is open for skiing in June. Crazy times.

I wore just a jacket - but Hillary refused to put on a shirt with sleeves -so she needed her blanket.
The pink pig is always Hillary's favorite.

Hillary loves this balloon with the giant leaves on it. She took this one.

And obviously she took this one of me and the balloon.

I just love these shots - all sky and balloons.